News
Einfach das Ende der Welt nominated for NESTROY Award 2021
Our in-house director Christopher Rüping has been nominated for the Viennese NESTROY 2021 Theatre Award in the category Best German-Language Performance with Einfach das Ende der Welt (It’s Only the End of the World). Our warmest congratulations! The NESTROY award ceremony takes place on Sunday, 21 November in Vienna and will be broadcast live on OFR 3. Co-director Nicolas Stemann will be giving the laudatory speech at the NESTROY Gala for Elfriede Jelinek, who is honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Just recently, Einfach das Ende der Welt was voted Production of the Year by the Theater heute critics. Two members of our ensemble, Benjamin Lillie and Maja Beckmann, were also awarded Actor and Actress of the Year. Both play roles in Rüping’s production. At the beginning of the year, the production was invited to this year’s Berlin Theatertreffen and opened the festival in early May with a live stream from the Schiffbau Hall. In spring 2022, we will be resuming performances of the award-winning production, which premiered on 3 December 2020. On our website you can already immerse yourself virtually in the stage set and discover a host of delightful details. In the Schauspielhaus Journal, Jonathan Mertz gives an insight into his work as set designer for the production.
NESTROY Award: The Nominees 2021
Quote by the jury on the nomination of Einfach das Ende der Welt:
“A terminally ill gay son returns home after years of absence. He is seeking to reconcile with his family, but is forced to recognise that each person is completely and utterly alone. Christopher Rüping has zoomed in Jean-Luc Lagarce’s play ‘It’s Only the End of the World’, which premiered in 1999 and was also made into a film by Xavier Dolan in 2016, to bring it incredibly close to us at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. The lead actor, Benjamin Lillie, first films his childhood home with a hand-held camera, including VHS tapes and Tom of Finland comics under the bed, then he exposes his family with close-ups. It becomes clear: people don’t change, old habits are simply too powerful. Rüping’s production worked perfectly both live in the theatre and as a live stream. And last but not least, there is one of the most heart-rending dance scenes in theatre history to Gigi D’Agostino’s hit I’ll Fly with You. Anyone who doesn’t want to cry and laugh and dance along to the music must have heart of stone.”
Karin Cerny